Known to us as Gaza (an issue of the guttural nature of the letter Ayin - ע -which is pronounced deep in the throat, as if swallowing and pronouncing simultaneously; for western Europeans trying to pronounce it, it tends to come out as a G)
Genesis 10:19 states that the border of Kena'an in the south-west ended at Azah.
Joshua 11:22: After his purge of the Anakim (usually translated as "giants", though it almost certainly means the earliest aboriginal settlers of Kena'an), the tribe survived only in Azah, Gat and Ashdod. Legends of giants continued, of which the most famous is Gol-Yat (Goliath), who became a hero of the Pelishtim after they occupied the region. Is it possible that Gol-Yat was an Anak who became associated with the Pelishtim by conquest, rather than by nativity?
Judges 16:1/3: The central location for the adventures of Shimshon (Samson), the sun-hero of the Pelishtim whom the Beney Yisra-El made their own by adopting the Dana'an Phoenicians as a Jacobite tribe. Shimshon's adventures throughout echo those of the Greek sun-hero Herakles (properly Hera-Cles, "the beloved of the moon-goddess Hera, which parallels Yedid-Yah, the full name of both David and Shelomoh) and the Celtic sun-hero Cúchullain. His name comes from the word Shemesh (שמש), "the sun", and is a variant on the Babylonian Tammuz; his spouse-cum-nemesis Delilah takes her name from the Aramaic form of Lailah (לילה), "the night", which is to say that she represents the moon as he does the sun; shaving his long, flowing locks to incapacitate and blind him is precisely what the moon does to the sun every night.
1 Samuel 6:17 names the five principal cities of the Pelishtim as Ashdod, Ashkelon, Azah, Gat and Ekron, all fortified, all ruled by their own prince. Plutarch said that Azah was the greatest city in all Syria!
Jeremiah 25:20 refers to the kings of the Pelishtim as Ashkelon, Azah, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, allowing city-names to stand eponymously for tribal chiefs, a convention followed consistently in the Tanach though it often leads to some confusion, especially in the genealogical lists.
Amos 1:6/7 talks of the crimes of the Pelishtim against Yisra-El and their punishment to come, as do Zephaniah 2:4 and Zechariah 9:5.
Judges 1:18 records that Yehudah had previously captured Azah but could not drive out the inhabitants as they had iron chariots; later the Pelishtim recovered it.
The war between David and the Pelishtim is recorded in 1 Samuel 28 ff.
Jeremiah 25:20 refers to the kings of the Pelishtim as Ashkelon, Azah, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, allowing city-names to stand eponymously for tribal chiefs, a convention followed consistently in the Tanach though it often leads to some confusion, especially in the genealogical lists.
Amos 1:6/7 talks of the crimes of the Pelishtim against Yisra-El and their punishment to come, as do Zephaniah 2:4 and Zechariah 9:5.
Judges 1:18 records that Yehudah had previously captured Azah but could not drive out the inhabitants as they had iron chariots; later the Pelishtim recovered it.
The war between David and the Pelishtim is recorded in 1 Samuel 28 ff.
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